There are many types of portable entertainment devices available to the consumer today. Among the more popular portable entertainment devices are Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) and Compact Disc (CD) players. DVD and CD players are so popular that they have been incorporated in notebook computers. These portable DVD/CD entertainment devices are often used in vehicles where one or more video displays may provide selected programming for individual vehicle passengers. The typical portable DVD/CD player is not only capable of playing DVDs and CDs having a variety of video and music formats, but is also capable of recording video and audio programming. These types of portable entertainment devices are increasingly provided with high quality video displays as well as high performance audio reproduction and speaker systems. However, the video and audio programming available on these portable entertainment devices is limited to the DVDs and CDs in the possession of the user.
Portable entertainment devices also take the form of digital music players, which are sometimes referred to as personal media players. One common form of a personal media player is the small-sized MP3 (MPEG Audio Player-3) player which can be used either as a stand alone device or integrated with another portable device such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and cellular phones. Users of these types of personal media players typically collect and store a personal library of digital songs, which may be stored on memory units such as hard disc drives and removable memory cards such as of the flash-type. These types of digital libraries are typically acquired by the user via subscription services through the Internet, by multiple user exchanges, or by downloading songs from a compact disc and storing them in an MP3 library. The size of the memories used in these personal media players allows very large numbers of musical performances to be stored and easily accessed by a listener.
These types of personal media players originally were limited to use with and storage of digital music. Current models of these types of personal media players are also capable of displaying and storing video files and programming. As in the case of the earlier personal media players in which audio files and programming could be stored, the latter models of personal media players are adapted for connection to a computer for downloading and storing video files and programming. The small size of these personal media players places corresponding restrictions on the size of its video display limiting viewing to only the user of the device. In addition, the size limitations of the personal media player also limits the quality of the video image presented and the audio reproduction provided by these small devices.
The present invention addresses the aforementioned limitations of the prior art by providing for the integration of a personal media player with a portable DVD/CD player to provide a higher quality audio output, as well as a larger and improved video image than that available on the personal media player. The portable DVD/CD player is provided with a docking system for receiving, and electrical connection to, the personal media player, with the personal media player's received and stored audio and video programming and files available for playing on the portable DVD/CD player.